Disguises and Dinner

“AAAAAAAHHHH-”

Rumia was in a lot of pain. The amount of electricity coursing through her body could not be healthy.

“Hm,” Anise noted from behind her machine. “This new machine seems to be working pretty well, considering it doesn’t cause a blackout when I do that now.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it, and congratulations on your scholarship money too,” Grimace said, standing next to her. They were talking over the singed Rumia who was lying on the ground.

“It’s great. This place has so much space!” Anise responded. “Plus there’s a bigger workshop for tinkering, a nice place to store all of my parts. You guys really delivered.”

“All for the best,” Grimace responded. The two then looked over at the screen on the machine that was hooked up to Rumia. The poor electrocuted girl began to get up, recovering from the immense damage that she took.

“It seems like it’ll take a while to process the data,” Anise said. “The new computer is strong but Rumia still contains so much information somehow. We’ll probably have to check back tomorrow.”

“Does that mean I’m done…?” Rumia raised her hand, exasperated.

“I guess so,” Anise said. “Thanks for helping me out, Rumia! I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Rumia dragged her battered body to the front door of the lab. She was going to take a quick breather and then go outside into the city. She never bothered to explore the place fully until now, but she’ll need to get a good bearing of her surroundings if she wants to escape.

The glowing girl pushed open the door and began to head outside. Though, as she did that she began to hear footsteps following behind her. She turned around and saw Grimace, following her with a serious expression.

“Did you need something?” Rumia asked.

“I’m your bodyguard,” Grimace responded. “I’m here to keep you safe.”

Rumia looked at the other boy confused for a moment. She wasn’t exactly sure why she needed a bodyguard all the time.

“Why?” Rumia asked again.

“Because you’re important. Plus, you fell from a strange light beam from the sky, I think it’s fair we keep an eye on you,” Grimace answered.

That same cryptic answer that Rebecca gave. It was annoying at this point, especially if she was trying to escape. She couldn’t do anything if there was a pair of eyes on her watching at all times.

She probably wasn’t going to win any argument though, so she had to accept it.

“Fine,” Rumia said. “I’m just going to the market to buy some food and stuff.”

“Do you have money?” Grimace asked.

“Yes. Anise gave me a bit of her scholarship money. The cafeteria food is good but I wanted something to treat myself,” Rumia answered.

“Very well, I suppose I could show you around the market of this city nonetheless. You may follow me.”

“Whatever you say.”

And so, the two of them left the Lunar Academy, down to the bustling marketplace of the capital.

***

Rumia was quietly annoyed at the surveillance she was under. She couldn’t do anything big with the guard over her shoulder.

So, for now, she stuck to little things. As she purchased a plain brown looking cloak that covered her entire body.

“What do you need that for?” Grimace asked.

“I glow,” Rumia responded. “I feel like I draw a lot of eyes that I don’t want, so when I’m out in public sometimes I’d rather hide that.”

That was partially true, but the fact that she glowed made sneaking around extra hard. Something that could contain the light would do wonders for her.

She didn’t want Grimace to get a particularly good look at it though, so she folded it quickly and put it away.

The two of them headed away from the shop and into the middle of town. If there was one thing Rumia realized though, is that she was pretty hungry.

She turned to Grimace.

“You should treat me.”

“Huh? Why me?”

Grimace looked a little bit confused at the order.

“If you’re following me around then you can at least be helpful. I don’t know any good restaurants around here, so you should treat me,” Rumia said.

“I’m your guard, not your boyfriend,” the boy crossed his arms.

“And you said I’m important, can’t you just give me this one?” Rumia asked.

“...”

Grimace looked down at Rumia for a second, before sighing.

“I know a good barbecue place in the center of the market. It’s expensive but I’ll cover you,” Grimace conceded.

“Sweet!” Rumia responded. She could get an extra good meal around these parts, especially something of higher grade. Not that the cafeteria food was bad, but she could get that any time.

The two of them headed towards the center of the marketplace, where multiple stores and restaurants lined up. Grimace walked past a few before heading to a small one by the corner.

Stepping inside, a restaurant decorated with wood, lit like what Rumia would remember similar to an evening sunset. It was a little bit nostalgic for her, she hadn’t seen something like that in a while.

It was immediately warm upon stepping inside, and a woman seemed to be behind the counter.

“Grimace?” The lady said.

“Good afternoon, Amanda. I’m here with a guest,” Grimace responded. “Table for two.”

“On it!” Amanda said, walking out from behind the counter and preparing a table nearby. It was pretty empty so far.

“It’s quite empty isn’t it?” Rumia said, looking around.

“I get more on the weekends,” Amanda responded. “The lockdown has generally caused restaurants to dip in popularity. But it’s survivable.”

“Where’s your kid?” Grimace asked. “Isn’t he supposed to be helping?”

“Supplementary stable income, he’s working as a repairman for the walls,” Amanda said. “It’s much better than whatever I could pay him. That plus the rebates have been helping me keep these doors open.”

Rumia didn’t realize the lockdown was that bad on some businesses. Though, blocking people from entering the city probably contributed.

“You’re a government guy, right?” Amanda said, her hand glowing with magic to light a small fire on the table. “When do you expect the lockdown to be over?”

“...I can’t tell you, if I knew I would,” Grimace responded. Amanda just sighed and handed them both a menu.

The flames lit up the center of the table, and Rumia decided to order some fish. That wasn’t really on the menu in the cafeteria. Grimace on the other hand ordered a steak skewer.

Their order eventually came, though both were raw. Grimace took his cut and hovered it over the fire. Rumia’s own dish came in a small aluminium container, with butter, raw fish, and seasoning on it. There was some additional broccoli as well.

Rumia placed her food on a small rack and placed it over the flame. Though she turned to the owner shortly afterwards.

“Question,” Rumia asked. “You said the government was providing rebates?”

“Yes. Financial relief, plus taxes have been lower as a result of it too. I’m not sure how long they plan to keep this up though,” Amanda responded. Though suddenly behind her, a blue hologram began to flicker behind them and a familiar face spawned in the restaurant.

It was PASCAL. Rumia was surprised to see her here. However, she turned to the middle of the marketplace and saw another PASCAL standing outside. Right in the middle of a busy market centre too.

“PASCAL?” Rumia asked.

“Ah, yes. I just had her installed recently, and Grimace offered to get it done for cheap. She’s for both entertainment and news,” Amanda responded.

“The governor is working on making PASCAL more widespread, especially due to how useful she is. She originally began as a school assistant, but she figured that those around the school could benefit too,” Grimace explained.

“Ahh. That makes sense,” Rumia said.

“I have important news to make to all small business owners,” PASCAL said in her standard robotic tone. “The Secretary of Trade and Local Development would like to share a few words and opportunities.”

PASCAL then faded away, and then a new man was projected onto the ground. A relatively tall man with a microphone in his hand. A smile on his face with a charming black suit, neatly put together for this experience.

“Good afternoon, valued business owners. We know that times have been incredibly tough recently due to security purposes, but our government is working to help you weather these trying times!” The man spoke as if he was talking through a radio.

“Who’s that?” Rumia asked Grimace, out of curiosity.

“He’s in charge of the local economy,” Grimace said, eating a piece of meat off his skewer. “Jaelin Martyn. He’s been quite busy recently.”

“We don’t have an expected date for the end of the lockdown, but we know that you all need supplies. That is why we’ve partnered with multiple of your suppliers already to safely bring in the materials you need for your business! These materials will come at a significantly reduced rate, and are certified high quality by the people you trust!” The projected man said. “All business owners can apply for approval! Just head over to the Royal Court, and you can be stocked up in no time!”

“Oh, I should probably apply for that,” Amanda said. “I could always use some more meat. Even if just for storage.”

“Hey, if it comes across me I’ll expedite your approval,” Grimace said, finishing his meal.

“Thank you very much, Grimace. You’re too kind,” Amanda responded. Rumia kept watching the hologram.

“Also! Since the lockdown began there has been quite the uptick of criminal behavior! Please report any suspicious activity to the city guards as soon as you can. We must work together to maintain a safer community,” Jaelin spoke. “There are rewards for a few suspects listed in the center of town. Just request the board from PASCAL for more information!”

“Seems like they need help without me around,” Grimace looked at the man. “Ah well, I guess this is essentially a vacation.”

Rumia was curious about that though. It’s obvious she couldn’t play entirely by the rules when trying to escape this place. Maybe finding someone who knows the less clean side of Oscur would be better.

She finished her food, pushing the bill to Grimace. She was satisfied with today. The two of them waved goodbye to the store owner and began to make their way back to Lunar Academy, probably to check on Anise.

***

They returned to the lab, and an odd sight was present for them to see. They saw the engineer completely wrapped around in papers, labeled in a long graph of distinct and varied markings. It was not a consistent pattern at all.

“Ah! You’re back!” Anise shook off all of the papers and ran towards the duo. “I finished printing the results… I think. I ran out of paper.”

“What does that mean?” Rumia looked at her.

“Well, I think there’s still more to look into. I just took your energy signature after all, but it was crazy. This new machine was built to withstand power, but it just kept on printing and printing data signatures from just those samples I took of you. I’ve never seen anything like it before, plus I swear I haven’t taken that much.”

“Interesting,” Grimace said. “Anything else?”

“Not too much, still a bit vague. We’d need to run more tests to get the details of her glowing magical energy sometime, but it's kind of insane how much of it there is,” Anise began shuffling through the paper.

“Well,” Grimace turned back. “I’ll be off. Be sure to submit a report detailing your findings by tonight.”

“I will!” Anise said, before turning back to Rumia. “So… did you want to do anything?”

“Oh, me?” Rumia asked, a bit surprised. She wasn’t expecting Anise to ask her that.

“I mean yeah, I’m free for a bit before I write that report. Did you wanna, like, watch a play or something in the auditorium?”

“Well,” Rumia said thinking. “I suppose I haven’t done too much leisure since I got here. So I suppose, why not.”

“Cool! The theatre kids put on the coolest shows,” Anise said. “I think they’re doing this story called the Dragon and the Badger. I haven’t read that book yet so it’ll be my first experience.”

Rumia had no idea what that title might entail. She figured that she could use a way to wind down, after dealing with so much preparing in the time she’s been here.

“So come on, let’s go!” Anise grabbed Rumia’s hand and dragged her out of the lab. “We don’t want to be late!”